"You know that you really have to study for this. Like a lot."

"This is very, very important and worth 33% of your grade!"

"You will be sad if you don't study and then don't do well!" I repeated to my brain.

My brain responds with "how about we look at Instagram!"

"We just checked Instagram..."

"I bet there's something new on there! You follow almost 200 people!"

"Please we just need to study"

"It'll only take one minute -- max"

Arm instinctively obeys Brain and the empty haze fills my head; I lose track of time until 30 minutes later, the boredom hits and I put down my phone.

"I knew it would take more than one minute! This always happens!"

"Fine. I guess we'll study..."

I sit there and squirm for twenty minutes; just physically unable to keep my eyes on the page and focus. Brain wanders to topics like "what are we having for lunch?" as I desperately try to repeat "glycolysis makes 2 ATP, oxidative phosphorylation makes 32 ATP" as images of butternut squash soup and avocado toast play in the background. I squirm around, unable to focus. My brain is in a complete fog and breaking through it is extremely difficult.

So how and where do people get the will power to focus instantly? Here is a process that has worked for me and my meek and distraction prone brain:

1. The hardest part of work is starting.

2. Take it one step at a time; start with opening your book and getting to that page. Lift your pencil and write the problem down.

3. Tell yourself that if you can just get through this one question, then you can reward yourself. If you can get through two questions, you can double that award.

Level 1: after you do a couple problems or read less than five pages.

Level 2: after you read ten to twenty pages or are halfway done with your problems you can bake or eat some nice homemade dessert.

Level 3: Congratulations you've finished all of your work! Treat yo self with some professionally made desserts with your friends!

If desserts or food isn't your thing (how can it not be though) then treat yourself in your own unique way (perhaps watch your favorite guilty pleasure show).

4. Before you know it, you will be able to concentrate and continue. You won't need to trick your mind when you are in "the focus zone."

There is no magical pill you can take to instantly get into the focus zone. It takes practice and stamina to force yourself to just try to start. You might squirm for a little bit before a study session but eventually you'll get there. Once you do this more and more, you'll be able to instantly get into the focus zone and these above steps will become shorter and shorter. Good luck to all of my fellow easily distracted and procrastination-prone peers!